Gary Kingham is silver medalist at nat’l. championship

Published by admin on Tue, 05/12/2020 - 7:30am

Newago, MI hosted the USCA National Canoe & Kayak Championships on the Muskegon River Thursday through Sunday, Aug. 8-11.Competitors were from 16 foreign countries and 38 states. The course included four miles on Croton Lake a portage over a dam and re-entering Muskegon River for eight winding miles of downriver rocks and rapids.

Kingham led his Sea Kayak division from the start until the last half mile when a rock damaged his rudder, slowing progress just enough to be overtaken at the finish by 12 seconds.

“I saw this guy coming up on me and we raced ‘boat-to-boat’,” related Kingham. “I tried to sprint to the finish but just couldn’t get any more speed out of the boat. My GPS was reading seven to eight miles per hours. I thought maybe I was tapped out. After we finished and lifted the boat out I saw the bent rudder and thought ‘oh boy.’ Well there is always next year.”

The following weekend at the nine-mile Great Iowa River Race in Iowa City, Kingham won gold in the Sea Kayak division.